Hamas

The Israeli government is understandably upset with Washington’s decision to deal with the newly announced unity government formed by the Palestinian Authority and Hamas. The anger and frustration is based on Jerusalem’s leaders being taken by surprise by the move and because the U.S. could have and should have based its acceptance on Hamas reforming itself.

Millions from sale of Queens house, other seized assets going to American citizens

04/23/2014 - 20:00

Stewart Ain

Staff Writer

The house, a handsome, three-story Tudor, sits on a leafy street in the posh Forest Hills Gardens section of Queens. Unbeknownst to all but a handful of people, it was the subject of a heated tug-of-war between the Iranian government and relatives of a former Bronx butcher who died of injuries sustained in a Jerusalem suicide bombing.

Former captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit wrote an open letter calling on all Israelis to demand that the United States free Jonathan Pollard.

Israeli officials have said that the revelation over the weekend that the United States spied on at least two sitting Israeli prime ministers opens the door for Israel to demand the release of Pollard, who has served 29 years of a life sentence in a U.S. prison for spying for Israel.

The Newseum said it was reconsidering its decision to honor slain cameramen employed by a Hamas affiliate.

The Washington-based Newseum, run by the Freedom Forum, a foundation promoting a free press, annually honors journalists killed in the line of duty.

This year’s ceremony, taking place Monday, was to have included Mahmoud al-Kumi and Hussam Salama, cameramen killed in November by an Israeli strike during Israel’s war that month against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

The cameramen were employed by Al Aqsa TV, an arm of Hamas, a group designated by the U.S. State Department as terrorist.

“Serious questions have been raised as to whether two of the individuals included on our initial list of journalists who died covering the news this past year were truly journalists or whether they were engaged in terrorist activities,” the Newseum said in a statement posted Monday.

In a shocking violation of their spiritual obligations as clerics, in an op-ed posted on The Jewish Week website (“Hate Speech Has No Place in a Synagogue”), Rabbis Michael White and Jerome Davidson defame my work and me, while falsely claiming that I am “defaming fellow Americans of a different Abrahamic religion.” They have obviously never read my work — my columns or my books. They falsely accuse me of hate speech and have the chutzpah to invoke Jewish teachings.